Amazon engineers probed after Seattle data-center push

Three Amazon software engineers are under internal investigation and have filed a civil rights complaint after they publicly urged the Seattle City Council to impose stricter regulations on data center construction. The employees, Patrick Schloesser, Darius Irani, and Liesl Wigand, allege the company is retaliating against them for exercising their political speech rights.

The three, who are members of the employee advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), testified at council hearings in early June. They supported a proposed one-year moratorium on new large data centers and advocated for specific regulations, including renewable energy requirements, public reporting of water and electricity use, and stronger labor protections. The Seattle City Council unanimously passed the emergency moratorium on June 9.

Within days of the council's vote, the three engineers said they were separately called into virtual meetings with Amazon's human resources department. They were informed that the company had opened an investigation into whether they had improperly presented themselves as speaking for Amazon without prior authorization. The employees stated they were told the...